(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tactile presentation apparatus and a method for controlling the tactile presentation apparatus.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A 4-dimension (4D) called in a movie industry is different from that in physics. 4D in physics means a temporal space generated by adding an element such as a time to a 3D space, but a 4D technology in the movie industry is referred to as a technology that adds an actual effect to viewers by providing physical effects such as wind, vibration of a chair, flash lighting, a smell, water ejection, and the like together with a 3D picture providing a 3D effect. That is, the 4D technology in the movie industry means that one technology is added to the 3D picture. Tactile technologies such as movement of a seat and the wind are added to the 3D stereoscopic picture primarily in a theme amusement park or a cinema to provide 4D sensory services.
The 4D technology does not always need to be accompanied with the 3D stereoscopic picture. Even though the picture itself is produced by not the 3D stereoscopic picture but a general 2D picture, the picture is shown in a 4D facility and the physical effects are provided to the picture to implement the 4D technology. Therefore, the largest feature of the 4D technology is in that a sensory physical stimulus is given to a user. The 4D technology is used to improve an immersion degree in picture contents primarily using a sense of vision and a sense of hearing by stimulating human senses (primarily, a sense of smell and a sense of touch).
An example of a tactile presentation technology in the related art includes an airborne ultrasound tactile display technology added to feedback to perceive tactility from a hologram displayed in a 3D space. According to the technology, an ultrasound phenomenon called acoustic radiation pressure is grafted to a hologram technology. In other words, a 3D stereoscopic display coupled with a tactile apparatus generating pressure provides tactility that interacts with the 3D picture. For example, a user can bounce a virtual ball, feel virtual rain drops that drop on a hand, and feel a virtual living organism that crawls along a palm.
Another example of the tactile presentation technology in the related art may include a system that enables feeling tactility of a stereoscopic picture, i.e., a touched 3D TV. According to the touched 3D TV technology, the viewer can feel tactility transferred to a fingertip through a kind of thimble device worn on a finger. The thimble device incorporates a micro-vibration device and transfers minute vibration according to movement of the finger picked up by a plurality of cameras installed around the TV and the structure of the stereoscopic picture.
Yet another example of the tactile presentation technology in the related art may include a multijoint haptic device. When the user moves a handle while holding the handle in his/her hand by using the device, the user can have a vivid feeling of throwing and realistically receive an iron ball hung on a spring.
Further, although various artificial tactile presentation apparatuses have been developed, the related arts require a lot of additional devices to deteriorate reality or a surface shape of a predetermined object or tactile information on a small object may not be normally expressed.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.